From location tagging to unmonitored comments to blatant sexual harassment, a new video streaming app has all the ingredients to become a parent's latest nightmare.

Periscope, Twitter's new iPhone app which allows users to broadcast live video and audio online, launched a week ago today and early adapters have already discovered potentially hair-raising issues with the much talked-about technology, which claims on its website that it is 'the closest thing to teleportation'.

Despite the initial hype surrounding the launch of the app, which is being touted as a revolutionary new way to share news, there are already a concerning number of users, particularly women, reporting that they have been sexually harassed, or trolled, while using the technology.

Streaming revolution: Periscope, an iPhone app that allows users to broadcast live video and audio to the internet, launched last Thursday

Warning: App developer Justin Esgar is warning parents about the app's various 'land mines' and insists that they need to monitor their child's use of it (stock image)

Justin Esgar, App Developer of the app Goodnight, told Daily Mail Online that because Periscope 'allows users to share even more of their intimate lives with each other than ever before', there are 'apparent dangers' that users have to consider before accessing it.

Emma Barker, sex and relationships editor at Cosmopolitan.com, noted that the app is already crawling with men who are using the anonymity afforded to them by the app's settings in order to sexually harass women - including one of her female friends.

She explained that her friend recently tried out the app by sharing a conversation she was having with her female roommate. They were fully clothed, sitting on a couch and casually conversing, yet 'within the first 20 seconds the first comment popped up’, asking for the women to ‘show butt’.

While neither of them were speaking in an even remotely sexual manor, the lude comments continued to pour in and included phrases such as: 'Show boobs', 'Age?' and 'I would soooo swipe right on both [sic]!'

Periscope has access to your location... That means your children potentially being found by anyone

One particularly creepy user asked: 'Do you get out of the shower to pee?'

According to Periscope's community guidelines, the app prohibits 'pornographic or overtly sexual content' as well as 'explicitly graphic content or media that is intended to incite violent, illegal or dangerous activities'.

And while a spokesperson for the app told Emma that Periscope has a team dedicated to content review, there doesn't appear to be anything specific being done to prevent sexual commentary and online harassment.

The app's policies are, unsurprisingly, similar to Twitter, which is currently testing out a 'quality filter' that monitors and removes threats and offensive language out of users notifications feeds.

It's not clear as to whether or not Periscope will be given a similar screening system.

But the recent reports of harassment and bullying have sparked concern among parents of many of the children and teenagers who currently have access to the app – raising questions about whether it is truly safe for young people to be using it, given that they could potentially be opening themselves up to all manner of abuse, be it of a violent, or sexual, nature.

Another startling revelation about the app, was revealed by Fast Company editor Rose Pastore, who was testing out the app and learned that it had a major privacy flaw.

According to Rose, if users neglected to turn off the location sharing feature, their video streams would be accompanied by a 'zoomable' map which allowed others to pinpoint their exact locations down to the intersection.

Thankfully, Periscope disabled the zooming feature on the map as a part of its first system update, but the app still enables locations.

Share this article

Share

161 shares

Special features: The app, which is owned by Twitter, allows users to follow certain people (L) and scroll through a 'Watch' feed of live videos (R)

Mr Esgar noted: 'Periscope requires not only your camera and microphone, but access to your location [if you want to broadcast video]. This means not only are you sharing your video, you are letting other users know where you are.'

He added: 'That means your children potentially being found by, best case, a disgruntled ex-spouse. The worst case clearly presents even higher levels of danger. You can easily search for users of the app, even if their Tweet streams are privatized.'

Periscope does enable users to hide their location once they begin broadcasting - but many users admit they didn't think to disable the feature before starting their video stream.

While testing the app, Mr Esgar said he watched Kevin Jonas and his daughter ride bicycles, a German man drinking, comedian Jim Gaffigan getting his hair washed and an office learning about Periscope.

'I don’t know or follow any of these people on Twitter but there it was, all live for me to watch on my train ride home,' he said.

There are lots of land mines here that parents now have to try and control

And while Periscope has provided guidelines for content, Mr Esgar noted that there doesn't seem to be any 'curation on the app either' - essentially allowing users to show whatever they want.

Users can report them, or even block, any people that they do not wish to be able to see their videos, and can also hide any or all chats any time by swiping right, scrolling to the bottom of the list of viewers and selecting 'hide chat'.

But by then it may already too late. You can't unsee something you have already seen, especially if you are an impressionable child.

'We’ve all heard stories of people sending nude photos to one another either via text or other social media apps,' Mr Esgar explained. 'Now you can easily stream nude videos. Clearly, this opens a lot of potential land mines for parents to now have to try and control.'

One user's labeled his Periscope live stream video: 'I'm brabroadcastingom my hotel room in LA. What could be more exciting than that? Stop by and say hello?'

Another touted a live video of a 'Crazy party in London'.

And then there is the issue of children and teens falling prey to online bullying.

Mr Esgar said that he 'witnessed a tireless stream of anonymous people saying things that would be inappropriate for a younger audience. The dangers of online bullying are huge, and Periscope, while a great app when used responsibly, allows bullying to escalate exponentially.'

He said the app should alter its features to include stronger privacy options, the ability to block location services, curation of commentary, as well as the addition of parental controls.

'Periscope’s concept is great - live streaming made easy,' he said, before adding: 'But maybe it’s just too easy?'